Wallet-friendly ways to enjoy live classical music on the North Coast

Five classical music festivals open this month in Northern California, starting this weekend with the Mendocino Music Festival and continuing through July 29 with the intimate Music in the Vineyards in the Napa Valley.

Beyond the usual ticketed concerts, the festivals also offer plenty of learning opportunities through open rehearsals and master classes, lectures and community concerts, plus wine receptions at which you can mingle with the musicians.

Many of these educational programs are free or come with an affordable price tag, making them even more attractive to folks who want to hear lots of Beethoven and Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn, too.

“We invite our audience to stay after every concert and drink a different wine from a local winery,” said Tanya Tomkins, artistic director of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma.

“It’s out on the patio, and we really encourage people to stay and talk to us.”

Here is a synopsis of options that are enlightening and light on your wallet.

Mendocino Music Festival, July 9-23

For 30 years, the Mendocino Music Festival has brought beautiful music to a beautiful setting, a big white tent perched on the Mendocino Headlands.

“I’m very proud of it,” said co-founder and executive director Allan Pollack. “It’s definitely a musician’s festival and has a lot of musical integrity.”

Residents of the town enjoy hearing the music waft up from the tent during rehearsals, but attendees may not realize that all the rehearsals for the opera, big band and orchestra concerts are free and open to the public. This year, that adds up to 15 rehearsals, which means nearly every day of the festival.

“People love them, and they get to hear the music in a way that they don’t usually get to hear it,” Pollack said. “People have commented that they actually prefer the rehearsals to the concerts, because they find it more interesting.”

In addition, some tickets to the tent concerts cost only $12, if you don’t mind sitting far away from the stage.

Some of the classical highlights of this year’s festival include Mozart’s first operatic masterpiece, “Abduction from the Seraglio” July 15, Bach’s moving Mass in B minor by the Festival Orchestra and Chorus July 23 and local violinist David McCarroll performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto July 20.

The festival is highlighting Beethoven this year, with works from his three main periods along with three lectures: “The Young Beethoven” July 18, “The Heroic Period” July 19, “The Late Beethoven” July 21, all in Preston Hall; and “All About Beethoven” July 17, a multimedia lecture by Susan Waterfall. The lectures cost $12-$29.

The Mendocino Music Festival also features concerts by world, folk, bluegrass, jazz and zydeco artists. mendocinomusic.org.

Festival Napa Valley,?July 15 to 24

The festival formerly known as Festival del Sole has offered a free concert series for the past seven or eight seasons - the Bouchaine Young Artist Series at the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa.

“It’s an opportunity for us to give the next generation of superstars a performing opportunity,” said Sonia Tolbert, general manager of the festival. “We also give a scholarship to each of the young artists.”

The concerts have grown so popular that this summer, all the seats have already been reserved. However, for the free Community Concert July 23 at the Lincoln Theater, the festival will showcase the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, a multicultural ensemble with kids from ages 7 to 18.

“The chorus came last year, and they were the smash hit of the season,” Tolbert said. “It blew everyone away ...their artistic director Francisco Nunes is unbelievable, and whatever they put together is creative magic. There was hardly a dry eye in the house.”

For the second half of the Community Concert, students from the Napa Regional Dance Company will perform July 23.

“It’s exciting for us to be able to present young dancers for the first time,” Tolbert said. “We’ve been presenting world-class ballet for a few years.”

For a complete schedule, go to festivalnapavalley.org.

Valley of the Moon Music Festival, July 16 to July 31

Now in its second year at the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma, this festival has a unique focus: Classical and Romantic chamber music performed on period instruments. This fact alone makes the festival more educational than most.

“By using period instruments, we are providing a context for listeners, our artistic apprentices and even ourselves,” Tompkins said. “We’ll be talking about this from the stage at every concert.”

Each year, Tomkins and Music Director Eric Zivian invite a handful of “artistic apprentices,” ages 18 to 30, to perform with them as a way to spread the joy of period performance. This year, the apprentices come from Bulgaria, Italy and Korea, among other places.

On July 28, the public is invited to attend a free master class for the apprentices with clarinetist Eric Hoeprick.

“Eric is the world’s leading expert on the historic clarinet,” Tomkins said. “He’s an instrument builder as well as a beautiful player.”

During a boxed dinner following the July 30 concert, musicologist and bassoonist Kate van Orden will lead a panel discussion about the two rival stars of the 19th century: Beethoven, with his instrumental music; and Rossini, with his Italian operas. The lecture and dinner are $35.

“Both of them were sweeping all of Europe,” Tomkins said. “This encapsulates the whole theme of the festival this year: the voice in chamber music.”

For a complete schedule, go to valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org.

PianoSonoma, ?July 24 to Aug. 6

Michael and Jessica Shinn, both pianists on the Juilliard faculty, founded this festival six years ago as an educational collaboration between artists-in-residence and adult students who are dedicated but not professional musicians.

In addition to all kinds of rehearsals, the festival held at the Green Music Center’s Schroeder Hall offers four concerts, plus two free master classes on July 27 and Aug. 3.

“One of our central tenets is having people learn what goes into artistic creation,” Michael Shinn said. “It’s effectively a public lesson.”

Shinn and his pianist father will give the first master class, and the second class will be given by Mirian Conti and streamed live from New York’s Yamaha Artist Salon with the help of Yamaha’s Disklavier CFX concert grand pianos.

“The two pianos are digitally connected, so that whatever one person does on one is replicated on the other,” Shinn said. “It looks like a ghost is playing a piano ... and there is video conferencing as well.”

All of the public concerts cost $15, which includes a free wine tasting before the concert during which you can mingle and meet the musicians. For a complete schedule, go to pianosonoma.org.

Music in the Vineyards, July 29 to Aug. 21

Now in its 22nd season, Music in the Vineyards offers intimate chamber music inside several iconic wineries in the Napa Valley, from Clos Pegase in Calistoga to Chimney Rock in Napa.

Artistic Directors Michael and Daria Adams bring in musical colleagues such as The Escher Quartet, The Jupiter Quartet and The San Francisco Piano Trio to perform a wide variety of chamber music over the course of three weeks.

There are three free, open rehearsals: July 28 at the Lincoln Theater, and Aug. 4 and 11 at the Napa Valley College campus in St. Helena. For a complete schedule, go to musicinthevineyards.org.

Staff writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56.